Dental-tool guard.



No. 635,244. Patented Oct. l7, I899. J. A. GHOLSON.

DENTAL TOOL GUARD.

(Application filed Nov. 7, 1898.)

(No Model.)

JOHN ARCHER GHOLSON, OF CLARKSVILLE, TENNESSEE.

DENTAL-TOOL GUARD.

SPECIFICATION forming part of Letters Patent No. 635,244, dated October 17, 1899.

Application filed November 7, 1898. Serial No. 695 ,78'7. (No model.)

To aZZ whom it may concern.-

Be it known that I, JOHN ARCHER GHOL'SON, a citizen of the United States, residing at Olarksville, in the county of Montgomery and State of Tennessee, have invented certain new and useful Improvements .in Guard Attachments for Dental-Engine Handpieces; and I do hereby declare the following to-be a full, clear, and exact description of the invention, such as will enable others skilled in the art to which it appertains to make and use the same.

The object of the present invention is to provide an improved dental-tool guard for attachment to the handpieces of dental engines which will be simpleand practical in construction, easy of application, and efficient in protecting the patients mouth from the tool, while not inconveniencing the operator in interchanging tools and without obstructing the view of the operator.

The invention will firstbe hereinafter more particularly described with reference to the drawings forming a part of this specification and then pointed out in the claims at the end of the description.

Of such drawings, Figure 1 represents in perspective the handpiece of a dental engine with a tool therein and my attachment applied. Fig. 2 represents the same parts in sectionalized side elevation. Fig. 3 represents the attachment in perspective.

In the drawings the reference-letter a designates the handpiece of a dental engine having the usual tapered outer end portion 0/, which for the purposes of my invention is provided on one side near its base with a projection, here shown in the form of a small screw 0. The spindle or shank of the tool is inserted through the middle of this tapered end portion of the handpiece, as usual, and the tool here shown is a disk cutter b; but, as is well understood, various tools are interchangeably fitted to the handpiece.

The attachment of my invention comprises a sleeve 0, tapering in form to correspond with the taper of the end portion of the handpiece and having a notch a formed on its inner edge to engage the screw a An arm in the form of a round rod is fastened to said sleeve and comprises a straight portion c,lying along the sleeve for a distance from its outer end and projecting beyond the latter, a laterallyprojecting portion 0 and an outer forwardlyextending portion 0 A curved and flangeless plate at is fastened to the latter and extends transversely thereof.

The above-described attachment is applied to the handpiece by fitting the tapering sleeve 0 over the outer end of the latter and engaging the notch a with the screw a so as to prevent turning of the sleeve. The frictional engagement effected between the latter and the handpiece by seating the sleeve tightly on the tapered end portion of the latter is sufficient to prevent accidental detachment of the sleeve, and with the same thus seated so that the complete device may be manufactured at a small cost and will be found very efficient in use, affording the least possible obstruction to the view of the operator, which is a desideratum in devices of this character.

An advantage of the flangeless form of guard-plate resides in the fact that interchanging of tools does not necessitate removal of the attachment. Altogether it will be seen that a form of attachment such as above described is admirably adapted for the purpose in View.

Having thus fully described my invention, what I claim as new, and desire to secure by Letters Patent of the United States, is-

1. As a new article of manufacture, a dental-tool guard adapted for attachment to the handpieces of dental engines, and consisting of a flat bowed plate arranged to overlie a segment of the periphery of a rotary cutter or abrading-t-ool, combined with a tapered sleeve adapted to fit over the tapered end of a suitable handpiece and an intermediate angular connecting-arm having one end rigidly attached to said sleeve and the other end thereof rigidly attached to said bowed plate with its intermediate portion arranged at an angle to both end portions so as to set off said plate from said sleeve and hold the same fiat flangeless arched strip or plate extending 1o,

transversely of the latter portion of the rodlike arm.

In testimony whereof I affix my signature in presence of two witnesses.

JOHN ARCHER GI'IOLSON. \Vitnesses:

G. S. RITT, C. B. LYLE. 

